L'Art & La Matière

Cuir Béluga Guerlain 2005 Eau de Parfum

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Ranked 45 in Unisex Perfume

8.5 / 10 1790 Ratings

A popular perfume by Guerlain for women and men, released in 2005. The scent is sweet-powdery. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Sweet

Powdery

Leathery

Gourmand

Spicy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Aldehydes

Mandarin orange

Heart Notes

Everlasting flower

Patchouli

Base Notes

Vanilla

Suede

Amber

Heliotrope

Perfumer

Olivier Polge

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.51790 Ratings

Longevity

8.01551 Ratings

Sillage

7.11542 Ratings

Bottle

8.71416 Ratings

Value for money

6.4810 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 05/16/2025.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the "L'Art & La Matière" collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Poudre d'Escampette

Cuir d'Orient

Jade Eau Fine Eau de Parfum

Bitter Sweet

Vanille

Café Chantant Eau de Parfum

Reviews

53 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/02/2012

5
Sillage 5
Longevity 5
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Very helpful Review 4

The Emperor's New Clothes of Leather Perfumes

Guerlain CUIR BELUGA is really the Emperor's New Clothes of leather perfumes. How strange that one would want to make a non-leather leather fragrance. After all, no one forces a perfumer to make a leather perfume, so he/she can always choose to create another lightly floral amber vanilla instead, and that is in fact what we have here.

I'm not saying that every leather perfume must approach CABOCHARD, but CUIR BELUGA is much closer to L'Artisan Parfumeur BOIS FARINE! It doesn't make sense strategically, either, I think. When I took out my sample vial of CUIR BELUGA, I looked forward with great anticipation to a new leather perfume that would be refined and sophisticated, perhaps something really out of the ordinary. What I thought I could certainly count on was something very daring--isn't that the point of leather frags, after all? Leather is an intrinsically eccentric note--the very antithesis of most.

Instead, I found myself wearing a pleasant, but rather nondescript linear scent with a touch of the gourmandise of IRIS GANACHE and ANGELIQUE NOIRE in a floury-amber, not a leathery base! What a disappointment.

08/07/2014

10
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 10
Scent

MasterLi
375 Reviews

MasterLi

Helpful Review 5

Quiet perfection.

From beginning to end, this fragrance speaks of luxury. Like white suede chamois gloves or the soft white leather interior of a luxury car, it doesn't get any better than this.

Initially I get a very delicate, sparkling mandarin orange balanced by aldehydes. The soft, vanilla-heliotrope background is joined by the dry, honey-like texture of immortelle flower. Followed by Amber and more vanilla in the dry down.

This is a minimalist composition of only 15 ingredients, this is very different for a Guerlain fragrance (most of which are very rich and complex). I think that whilst this is minimalist, it speaks of quality all the way through.

A beautifully balanced, quiet, sweet and soft fragrance which really lets people know you have taste. In a class of its own, really.

10/07/2023

10
Pricing 10
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Razvanyke
214 Reviews

Razvanyke

Helpful Review 3

This is what it is ..

First of all, the creativity of the scent is outstanding .. for the classy person wearing such a close to skin scent, this must be a signature perfume for sure.

I had the pleasure of smelling it on someone many years ago in the Berlin U-Bahn (Subway) where the seats are quite close and I was very impressed. Up to that point I never experienced such a seductive, sweet, leathery (suede) smell.

But like with many things an possible due to the nature of the naturals used in creating this smell, what we get today is not what I experienced back in the day.

Enjoy the video, thank you for watching.

12/07/2024

6
Pricing 8
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Musicandarts
197 Reviews

Musicandarts

4

A marvelous floral, amber and vanilla fragrance - a true masterpiece but not a leather scent

Cuir Beluga is a twenty-year-old classic from the L’Art & La Matière collection from Guerlain, whose beauty validates its super-star status. The creator of Cuir Beluga is Oliver Polge, possibly with some contribution from Sylvaine Delacourte. But it is Thierry Wasser and Delphine Jelk who introduce this perfume on Guerlain website. The perfumer, whoever it may be, has made it difficult for me to write a breezy review, as this creation is a complex world of interwoven accords blended exquisitely. The beluga in the name alludes to the luxury and the exclusiveness associated with beluga caviar, which has nothing to do with the beluga whale. This review was originally written using a sample vial from Guerlain. I have updated it after I bought a 20 ml flacon.

The notes listed for Cuir Beluga on Guerlain’s website are tangerine, immortelle, suede-leather, amber, heliotrope and vanilla. I don’t detect any aldehyde, nor is it necessary to explain the accords. In an earlier interview, Sylvaine Delacourte indicates that some aldehyde was used to soften suderal, the synthetic white suede ingredient in Cuir Beluga. Though patchouli is not listed among the official notes, there is a strong patchouli-like accord in Cuir Beluga. A casual sniffer might label this perfume as a patchouli-vanilla, but the provenance of this accord could be an artifact of the suede used by Oliver Polge. I have never smelled immortelle or heliotrope flowers in the wild, which hinders my analysis. Immortelle is described as a multifaceted accord, smelling of hay, tobacco, caramel, maple, licorice, tree sap, grapefruit, cinnamon and/or curry leaf. So, immortelle could also be contributing to this patchouli smell. On top of it all, no perfumer is required to disclose all the ingredients and notes they use. Fortunately, none of this information is necessary for us to enjoy Cuir Beluga.

I will use my nose to describe the olfactory pyramid in Cuir Beluga. Every note listed on Guerlain’s website is there in the opening. Tangerine is however just a flash that lasts seconds on the skin, gone forever after that. It lives longer on a paper blotter. The heart notes of suede-leather, immortelle, heliotrope and vanilla are present from the beginning and turn into the base notes and the dry down. There is a persistent sandalwood-like vibe throughout its life, which adds to the charm. Cuir Beluga is not a typical suede-leather perfume, and you are more likely to classify it as an amber vanilla fragrance with a touch of incense if tested blindly. Development if any, is very minor in Cuir Beluga. In the dry down, vanilla and amber are a bit more prominent than the other notes.

The performance of Cuir Beluga is very good, in agreement with Guerlain’s own intensity rating of 3 out of 4. I can smell the immortelle, vanilla and amber even after 6-8 hours on my skin. Projection and silage are midrange, conducive to its elegant personality. You won’t smell it from across the room.

Cuir Beluga is a beautiful, elegant fragrance that adds heft to any collection. The 20 ml flacon now available on Guerlain’s website makes sure that everyone can now own a bit of this classic fragrance. I recently bought one, and I recommend Cuir Beluga without any hesitation

05/03/2014

8
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 8
Scent

WRoth
154 Reviews

WRoth

2

Cuir Beluga

his fragrance opens with aromas of vanilla, patchouli and leather. The notes blend into an unusual accord: a sweet, slightly salty, chocolate leather accord. I do not know if it is just my imagination but the saltiness reminds me of brine. The vanilla and patchouli notes balance this interesting facet which otherwise could have been rather off-putting. The fragrance is smooth and sophisticated and makes me think of an exotic milk chocolate bar made with goat’s or lama’s milk. If I had to name a scent sibling for this Guerlain offering I’d chose Odori’s Iris.

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